Russian military exercises off Irish coast would have been ‘absolutely routine’

The Oireachtas transport committee heard on Wednesday from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), after Russia agreed to move planned military drills off the south-west coast of Ireland.

On Saturday, the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister had confirmed that he received assurances from his Russian counterpart that the drills would not take place in Ireland’s exclusive economic zone.

The artillery drills were to take place at the start of February in international waters – albeit it in Irish-controlled airspace and the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The planned exercises caused considerable upset and controversy in Ireland, and sparked protests by Irish fishermen outside the Russian Embassy in Dublin.

Appearing before the committee, IAA chief executive Peter Kearney told politicians: “Although the Russian Federation has indicated that planned exercise would be moved and so the original airspace restrictions have been cancelled, we need to remain alert that the exercises could take place at a new location, outside of our area of responsibility but in an area that could impact our operation.”

However, he also said that the planned Russian activity, although the first of its kind in living memory, was “routine”.

He said: “With what has been seen in Ukraine and Russia and the sensitivities around that, I can understand how people would be very concerned.

“From our point of view, this is absolutely routine. There’s nothing unusual at all about this. This didn’t generate any surprise or additional level of alertness within our organisation. We simply applied the procedures that we’ve operated for many years.”

In a lengthy opening statement, Mr Kearney told the committee he wanted to “stress that, while not commonplace, military exercises do occur from time-to-time in international waters and airspace”.

He said there were “agreed international procedures in place for the safe management of civilian aircraft while such exercises take place”.

Russia followed the correct process to alert officials to the exercise, he said.

In his opening statement, he talked politicians through how such exercises are notified and how the IAA operated amid the recent controversy.

He said Russia notified UK authorities regarding the drills on January 19.

UK authorities then contacted Ireland.

On January 27, British authorities published a notice to inform airlines that a portion of airspace would be closed as a result of the planned exercise.

“The practical outcome of these steps is that the area of airspace where the exercise was to take place had been closed to civil aircraft for the required period between February 3 to 8.

“To further protect civil aviation, we had also put in additional buffers to widen the restricted area – beyond that which had been notified by the Russian authorities – and had increased the restricted altitude to unlimited, meaning no civilian aircraft could fly into or over the restricted area.

“We also widened the time of the closures to ensure that all aircraft would have exited the area well in advance of the naval exercise commencing.”

Mr Kearney said that all of the steps were put in place to “ensure the safety of the operation of civilian aircraft”.

“The safety of operations within Irish air traffic control airspace would not have been impacted, as all civilian aircraft would be routed away from the relevant area,” he said.

With the Russian exercise now moved elsewhere, aircraft were are free to flight plan through the area that was to have been restricted, he added.

“In other words, they can now plan the most efficient transatlantic routing as normal,” he said.

Taking questions from politicians, officials said the UK, Nato and France had all carried out similar exercises in recent years.

IAA officials said Nato and French exercises were held in the international airspace monitored by Ireland in 2021, while a UK held an exercise in 2017.

In total, officials said they were “four experiences” over the last five years in terms of military or naval training exercises impacting international airspace near Ireland.

The officials said they understood that the Russian exercise would have involved the firing of artillery and missiles.

The IAA were told that the “top of activity” for the Russian exercises was meant to be 11,000 metres.

However, authorities asked civilian flights to avoid an “unlimited” area of airspace.

They said that some civilian aircraft can fly at 37,000 ft.

The military activity would have therefore taken up “quite a small amount of airspace”, Peter Kavanagh, IAA general manager for en-route and aeronautical information services, said.

Fianna Fail Senator Timmy Dooley acknowledged that the committee appearance had been “overtaken by events”.

He asked: “Was there any diplomacy employed in the IAA, perhaps at board level, to talk to the Russian Ambassador?”

Mr Kavanagh said that was not necessarily a role for the organisation or the IAA board.

“This is standard international practice. I’m not sure it is something the board can even get involved in,” he replied.

There was also criticism of the Foreign Affairs Minister by some committee members.

Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe said Simon Coveney “could and should have done a lot more” regarding the military activity.

“I don’t think we should be tipping our cap all the time to larger nations and being bullied in the schoolyard of geopolitics,” he said.

Mr Kearney, taking questions from committee chairman Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell, said no further communication has been received from Russian authorities.

He said he believes any upcoming exercises will only involve the navy.

“We believe this is closed,” he said.